Ohio Assessments for Educators (OAE) Early Childhood Practice Exam

A second-grade teacher helps children record temperature and weather conditions over two weeks. What skill does this activity primarily practice?

1. Describing and classifying phenomena

2. Designing and using scientific models

3. Formulating and testing hypotheses

4. Collecting data and drawing conclusions

The correct answer is: Collecting data and drawing conclusions

Collecting data and drawing conclusions is the primary skill being practiced in this activity. By having the children record temperature and weather conditions, the teacher is engaging them in a systematic way to gather quantitative information. This process involves observing the environment and noting specific data points, such as temperature readings and weather changes, over a designated period. Once the data is collected, children can analyze it to identify patterns or trends, which helps them understand the relationship between weather conditions and temperature fluctuations. This leads to drawing conclusions about weather phenomena, such as recognizing which temperatures correspond to particular weather conditions or understanding daily and weekly patterns in their local weather. This activity emphasizes the importance of hands-on experience with scientific observation and the foundational practice of data collection, which is crucial in scientific inquiry and understanding the natural world. In contrast, other options focus on different aspects of the scientific process, such as modeling or hypothesis formulation, which are not the primary focus of simply recording and interpreting observed data.